Bowers Ambulance of LA, ALS services

[Tsani]

Hello all, as the title suggests I am trying to find out about Bowers Ambulance in LA (Los Angeles) county. Their website says they have ALS services but that is about it, I've searched for more information with out much luck.

I am trying to figure out what exactly their ALS does, do they respond to 911 or run ALS IFTs, do they staff Basic/Medic or Medic/Medic? Also where are the ALS stations?

I'm asking because I have an interview Monday and my main reason for working for them would be to work with paramedic on an ALS rig, and get some 911 experence. I have been doing IFTs for a year and a half now and want to learn as much as I can before going into paramedic school.

Thanks for your help.


Edit: Also any info on companies that do run ALS 911 calls in the LA/OC area would be great. I've heard there are some towns that still run private ambulance 911 but never any names. I know AMR runs 911 in Riverside county and I have applied and passed their tests but as of now (5-21-11) they are not hiring.

 

[Tsani]

Well I guess you can't edit twice

So apparently the search didn't include the EMS Employment section, I feel dumb, I found a lot of my answers there...

 

[Death_By_Sexy]

Bowers is an IFT only company. Working with a medic, you will be doing mostly BLS run with the occasional ALS call.These would include patient on the cardiac monitor mostly, transports to the cath lab, or just where the MD orders ALS just to cover all bases. Don't expect to see any drug adminstration, intubating, pacing, cardioversion, etc. In the IFT realm, these things would very very very rarely happen.

LACo 911 consists of AMR, Schaefer, Care, Gerber and McCormick. Doing a search will tell you each's area. I'm pretty sure AMR is hiring up in Antelope Valley, one of our emergency contracted areas.

Lastly, the word that floats around LA is that Bowers is involved in litigation regarding Medicare fraud. Not trying to dissuade you, but you might consider it in your selection process.

 

[IAems]

It seems from your post that your a Basic, if so, please read, if not disregard. LA County Policy mandates that ALS 9-1-1 must be dual medic (no exceptions)! I am a supervisor and at our last county meeting they told us that 1:1 (meaning 1 medic, 1 EMT) were not allowed to respond to anything but IFT calls, even if the patient's complaint merited ALS and our response time was less than the Fire Department's. So, if you wanna do 1:1 in LA, it'll be IFT. Look into Hall ambulance in Kern County for 9-1-1 ALS 1:1 (your scope will be awesome), or work for one of the private companys contracted to work with LA County Fire (McCormick, Schaefer, Care, or AMR). Bowers 9-1-1 is back-up only and the ALS is generally IFT.

 

[Tsani]

Yep, I'm a basic. I didn't know LA county required dual medic, thanks for that info. I looks like I will be commuting a bit no matter what. Thanks for the info.

I would love to work at Hall but unfortunately I live in Costa Mesa which makes Bakersfield a 3 hour drive and from what I have read about Hall you have to work Bakersfield before you can get on the more rural areas, which may be a more manageable distance.

Looks like Bowers is gonna be a no go, the less than favorable forum reviews coupled with new openings in the ACLS and Cardiac Dysrhythmias classes I wanted to take shot that down...